Reclaiming the Dining Room
Well, since we aren’t gathering these days…I don’t have to worry much about having people over…unless it’s a zoom party and I can fake my way through those pretty well (more on that in another post)! I got to thinking, as I’m sure we all have lately, about doing the things that I never have time for like, organizing my recipes, cleaning the laundry room, throwing away old papers and doing a big ugly DIY remodel on our half bath in the basement. I try to stay on top of these things…but honestly, they get away from me more often than I’m on top of it all.
We spent last weekend trying to make my husband’s large home office area habitable again. My husband has a loud, booming voice so when he’s on a call or leading a meeting, the whole house literally shakes. Since we’re all trying to accomplish one thing or another at home these days, it was mandatory to get him back into his own space! His area was beginning to look like a hoarder had moved in, almost to the point where no one could even walk in there.
I had been planting the seed for a big weekend office clean-up during the week leading up to it; “wouldn’t it be great to get back into your office?”, “just think honey, you won’t have to watch me roll my eyes every time I walk by” and then this final statement – “I’ll plan on doing it myself if you don’t want to get involved”…That last one always scares him into agreement.
Saturday morning, I organized a clean-up crew consisting of me, my daughter and one of my sons. I felt that with all of us there for moral support and to occasionally offer our advice as to whether something is a keeper, donation or plain garbage, we could make some real headway. And, we could keep our eye on him to make sure he didn’t slip out the side door or start napping or watching tv. He’s sneaky like that!
After two days, my team emerged…along with multiple bags of garbage, boxes of paper to be recycled and lots of found items that were presumed lost forever. With only a couple more hours of work, the office will be recovered and with it, my sanity! Soon, my dining room table will be released from its temporary office duty.
I was super proud of myself for getting the family together and getting this done. Not only did it keep us occupied for almost two days, but it got a job done that will benefit us all. The only bad thing about this, was on Monday morning, when I called for an extra garbage/waste pick up, I was told that there will be no extra service at this time due to the Corona Virus…totally understand, so I guess the garbage will live with us for a while longer!